Driving Online Voter Registration Data Standards

The TrustTheVote Project continues to drive innovation on the rails of standards. This week, we help kick-off another of several data standards efforts, this time focused on online voter registration data and related protocols. We participate and help facilitate this work through the acknowledged digital technology standards making organization, the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers or "IEEE."

IEEE provides the standards body that's most active in election data standardization efforts, in its work group named 1622. There are several active areas of work now, and you can learn more here.

A new area of 1622 work is in data standards pertinent to online voter registration, or "OVR." As of today, the 8th of June, about half a dozen individuals have agreed to work over the short term in a "study group" to define a scope of work for a possible new standards sub-group focused on OVR standards. That group, including members of the TrustTheVote Project Core Team seek to have broad participation not limited to individuals already involved in IEEE 1622 standards development efforts.

A "Call-For-Participation" document has been published (available here), which I encourage anyone interested in online voter registration to look at, and redistribute freely, blog about, or whatever.

Starting this week, the group will begin the process of scheduling a kickoff teleconference, and in the mean time performing eMail discussion of the potential scope items described in the CFP document.

If you are interested in participating or observing, contact John Sebes directly or contact us here and we will loop you in during the week of the 8th.